01 AUG 2010

Happy BC Day! and in Ontario it is a Civic Holiday.

Up this morning ready for a new day. We both are starting to feel a bit tired of all the travel, packing and moving each day – but this is only the start, so buck up boys!!!

Actually we wanted to head into Sault Ste Marie to have a look at the historical locks and learned that there is a guided tour available at 11. Since we are only a couple of hours outside of the city, we headed directly to the locks and signed up. As it turns out, we were the only two signed up for the tour (costs us $2.90 each for the tour and it became a private tour – what a deal). We learned so much again and had a chance to study the historical lock, learn about its unique qualities and workings as well as discuss the significance of the lock. In particular, it was decided to put in the lock when the US refused to allow Canadian troop ships and ammo to be transported up the locks on the US side during the Louis Riel rebellion. There was a need to have a lock that we controlled and so it was put into place.

What is cool, is that the ground cut out to create the channel is Sand Stone. The masons were brought in to cut the stone so it could be used to build the buildings onsite. The use of hydro electric power to work the gates etc was innovative and creative. Many interesting things to be learned.

Our personal tour took almost 2 hours (longer than normal) since we asked so many questions and our tour guide was not overly busy.

After lunch we decided to travel to Manitoulin Island and confirmed that we could find a campsite once we did get there.

The drive to the island took about 4 ½ hours from Sault Ste Marie, but it was an easy drive. The goal is to get there, and spend tomorrow on the island leaving on the Tobermory ferry at 5:50 pm to go to the Bruce Trail Provincial Park. This will give us a relaxing day tomorrow to look over sites of the island and rest up a bit.

We managed to book a campsite at Gord’s Eco Campgrounds. What we did not know is that eco did not mean economy, but Eco friendly. This means outdoor biffy’s, sun heated shower bags, etc. It does seem like a nice place and has wi fi available so I can write this and send it. However it has lots of trails and interesting activities available on site so we are looking forward to taking advantage of them tomorrow.

Time to post this and get to bed.